Could Online Piracy Today Change the 3-D Printing Future?

                If you were to pick up a random object in the room you are in odds are it says it was made outside the U.S. I bet in 25 years if you were to pick up an object it would read: “Designed by: XXX Company, Made By: (Insert Your Name Here)’s 3-D Printer”.  It won’t be long before 3-D printers are found in majority of households. Sure it might take some decades for the equipment and source materials to be priced cheaply enough to be practical; but, it will most likely happen in our lifetimes. I see them being utilized as an express version of Amazon. You would simply just buy a blueprint file from the manufacturer or a third party, download, customize if you want, print, and voila the item you wanted is ready for use in hours (or who knows maybe even minutes). This obviously won’t be available for all items; but to start basic things such as: school supplies, board games, phone cases could easily be printed even with the current technology. Byung Park posted last week about a company that is currently manufacturing 3-D dresses. With 3-D printing expanding into more fields and becoming more applicable every day; it raises the question of how online piracy will affect its future.

                Currently, almost everything in digital form can be pirated and gotten for free. While the war on piracy continues to this today, it has definitely quieted down from before. Two years ago, the internet exploded with resistance to two legislative acts that would censor the web and significantly impact people’s ability to pirate. SOPA and PIPA were both, thankfully, stopped before they could cause any damage. After that the pirating websites got some breathing room as governments backed off. Recently, one of the most used pirating sites, The Pirate Bay, was taken down. Nevertheless, just like SOPA and PIPA were defeated; Pirate Bay has been revived and is back to its former glory. As the fight continues, it is clear that internet piracy isn't going anywhere. So how will this gradually increasing activity impact the future of household 3-D printing?

                As of this moment I see 3 possibilities that might be used to deal with piracy in 3-D printing. First, companies could decide that pirating doesn't resolve in that much lost revenue and that they should just leave it alone. This would be the optimal situation, and would save the companies and government much time and headaches. Or they can do the complete opposite, and decide that pirating results in too much lost revenue and the best way to avoid is to not sell their blue prints online. This is probably the least likely of the scenarios. It would require all companies of a certain product to agree not to publish anything online; otherwise, if 1 publishes the rest will have to do the same to stay competitive. Also the high demand for convenience will probably never let the second scenario stay relevant for a long time. Lastly, the manufactures can try and fight piracy like Hollywood did with SOPA and PIPA. This to me is the scariest scenario and the most probable. This time the government won’t be pressured by Hollywood to pass the bills, instead it will be by every manufacturing giant that has 3-D printed products. Not only will the majority of the business world be pressuring the government so will the prospect of not heavily relying on any other country for manufacturing. And I fear that prospect, more than anything, will push the U.S. government into passing anti-piracy laws when that time comes. While we can enjoy our online freedoms currently; it is possible that increased online pirating now, will lead to a highly restrained web in the future.